DavisBeefmasters
Well-known member
Well, you guessed it, we left Monday afternoon to go back home to Missouri to spend Turkey day with the folks and left the 19 year old young man to tend things until we returned on Friday morning...
Calls every day were made: Animals all have water? Yep. Any new calves? Nope. Any chickens eaten by coyotes or owls? Nope. So all is good? Yep.
So here comes Friday morning when we returned home:
1. Who does this bull calf belong to? I don't know - just saw him (looks to be 2 days old)
2. Who is that heifer calf lying on the hill? I haven't seen her before now either
3. Why are the chickens out of water? Oh, are they?
...and the little heifer calf on the hill hadn't even been cleaned, dried navel cord and no momma claiming her so now we have a little heifer calf named...
...you guessed it...
Little Orphan Annie
she is doing quite well, sucked down powdered colostrum on Friday and Saturday and we have her on milk replacer now and will be picking up calf starter on the way home from work.
...so question to any/all out there, since I've never had an orphan calf before -- can you turn out an orphan calf with the herd and if so, how do you feed him/her calf starter seperately from the other cow/calf pairs?
...any/all advice welcome.
Calls every day were made: Animals all have water? Yep. Any new calves? Nope. Any chickens eaten by coyotes or owls? Nope. So all is good? Yep.
So here comes Friday morning when we returned home:
1. Who does this bull calf belong to? I don't know - just saw him (looks to be 2 days old)
2. Who is that heifer calf lying on the hill? I haven't seen her before now either
3. Why are the chickens out of water? Oh, are they?
...and the little heifer calf on the hill hadn't even been cleaned, dried navel cord and no momma claiming her so now we have a little heifer calf named...
...you guessed it...
Little Orphan Annie
she is doing quite well, sucked down powdered colostrum on Friday and Saturday and we have her on milk replacer now and will be picking up calf starter on the way home from work.
...so question to any/all out there, since I've never had an orphan calf before -- can you turn out an orphan calf with the herd and if so, how do you feed him/her calf starter seperately from the other cow/calf pairs?
...any/all advice welcome.